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For the first time in its history, a rainbow Pride flag is flying atop Toronto Police headquarters — a move that comes at the launch of month-long celebrations characterized by controversy over police participation.

Supt. Barbara McLean said the rainbow flag flying above police headquarters was a sign to LGBTQ members “that we are welcome to bring our true selves to work.” (Andrew Francis Wallace / Toronto Star) | Order this photo

For the first time in its history, a rainbow Pride flag is flying atop Toronto police headquarters — a move that comes at the launch of month-long celebrations characterized by controversy over police participation.

“As a proud member of the Toronto Police Service and as a gay woman, I am privileged to speak to you today at what is a historic moment,” said Toronto police Supt. Barbara McLean, before the rainbow flag was raised on the rooftop of police headquarters at 40 College St.

The flag tells LGBTQ members “that we are welcome to bring our true selves to work,” McLean said, and shows the public that times are changing at Toronto police and within the larger policing community.

“We’ve made much progress over the years, but there’s a lot of work to be done and it’s with your support that we will get better,” said Deputy Chief James Ramer, who was speaking on behalf of Chief Mark Saunders, who is out of town.

The inaugural flag raising comes after high-profile controversy surrounding police participation in the Pride Parade, which will cap the festivities later this month.

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Responding to demands made by members of Black Lives Matter Toronto concerning police participation, Pride organizers earlier this year stipulated that police uniforms, weapons and vehicles are not welcome in the parade, though officers themselves are not banned from the celebrations.

Asked why Pride Toronto was not invited to Thursday’s flag raising, Toronto police Const. Danielle Bottineau said the event was intended to be internal, and that she has been in ongoing conversations with Pride Toronto organizers.

“Not heavy in-depth ones — that’s for the next 12 months — but we need to support Pride Toronto as best as we can to get them through this Pride season,” said Bottineau, who is the Toronto police LGBT liaison officer.

Pride Toronto spokesperson Ryan Connelly said he would not be commenting Thursday.

Asked how she feels about not marching in the parade in uniform, McLean — who said she “could not have imagined” the Pride flag at police headquarters when she became an officer 28 years ago — acknowledged the issue was “emotional.”

“It’s emotional for the community, it’s emotional for our police officers, and what it indicates to me is that . . . there is much work to be done inside and outside of our organization, within the community and we are motivated to do that,” McLean said.

Pride Month was officially kicked off with a flag raising at Toronto City Hall on Wednesday, one week after a failed attempt at city council to scrap Pride’s $260,000 grant for this year’s festival.

The emotional and bitter debate was prompted by Councillor John Campbell’s motion to provide the city’s annual grant only if Pride Toronto allowed uniformed, armed police officers (the motion failed by a vote of 17-27).

The move to ban police uniforms and weapons at this year’s parade comes after Black Lives Matter Toronto held a sit-in during last year’s parade to demonstrate its opposition to police presence in the parade.

When Pride banned police floats from the parade, it did so after “realizing that this is about safety and about a long history of people — black people, Indigenous people — not feeling protected and feeling unsafe,” Pascale Diverlus, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter Toronto, told the Star last month.

Toronto pastor and LGBTQ activist Brent Hawkes said Thursday he was “stunned” to look up and see a rainbow flag above police headquarters — “I mean, it’s amazing how far we’ve come,” he said.

Hawkes went on a 25-day hunger strike to protest the infamous 1981 Toronto police bathhouse raids, when officers stormed in, humiliated and arrested hundreds of gay men. Last year, Saunders expressed “regret” for the police force’s past treatment of the gay community, the bathhouse raids in particular.

Acknowledging this year’s Pride has been “very tense,” Hawkes nonetheless said there has been too much focus on the tactics used by Black Lives Matter Toronto, and it’s distracting from the real issue at hand.

“And the issue is that there is a lot of racism in our city. There’s no question. And I think within the gay community there is a lot of racism,” he said.

“In a community that prides itself on being inclusive, it’s sometimes hard to admit that we may not be fully inclusive.”

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